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help with embedding flash video

I have a larger movie that I want stopped on load with menu controls. I have tried several different things, but the movie is not loading properly. I have gotten it to start automatically on page load and with no menu, but for some reason it isn't loading those other options. right now it seems to be trying to download the entire video before it starts. Ideally, I would like the skin to be displayed with the download progress and the first frame of the movie, so the user can start the stream when they want.

Any help on some nitty gritty code that does the job would be appreciated.

Hey Jason,
What do you mean by menu controls? Will there be a list of some type to choose from or are you referring to the video controls, like play, pause, etc.? Do you actually want the movie to download (showing in the progress bar) but the play to pause after the first frame? Kind of like preloading the movie? Or not begin to download until the user hits the play button?

What do you mean by menu controls? Will there be a list of some type to choose from or are you referring to the video controls, like play, pause, etc.? Do you actually want the movie to download (showing in the progress bar) but the play to pause after the first frame? Kind of like preloading the movie? Or not begin to download until the user hits the play button?

Just referring to the simple play, pause etc. Yes download the movie but pause after first frame so it is ready to go if/when the user does want to watch the video.

Well someone else in the forum had pointed me to this link for preloading assets:http://blog.greensock.com/preloadassetmanageras2/
Since then I’ve found other solutions also to what’s called “preloading”. Just Google it and you’ll be busy for awhile.
Another option would be to create your player with an image of the first frame of your video in the first frame of the .swf that holds your video player. That makes it look like your movie is there ready to play. Put it on a lower layer than the video, kind of like a background or something like that.
If your server supports progressive downloading, I wouldn’t think you would really want to download the whole file (preload it) unless the user is actually going to view it. The buffer time should be minimal, and with a progress bar the viewer could see the downloading occurring.
One point about the first frame of your video that I’ll mention is something I learned the hard way. For Internet videos, I would not recommend having an all black screen as part of the opening frames, (and I LIKE starting my movies with black!). Viewers are probably looking at a black space on the player until the video loads anyway. I found that extending that out over the first few frames exacerbates the viewers impatience. Stick a white title or something in the very first frame so the view knows they are connected. As in the case of your video, the first few moments are black, so showing the first frame while preloading could give the impression that there’s nothing in that black space.
I’ve had to trim some of the silence before songs which play on mp3 players for the Internet also. With that nice, quiet lead in time, viewers are thinking there’s nothing there.
Best of luck on your project!